London/Tokyo — Global stocks remained within a tight range on Friday, less than two weeks before the US presidential election, with traders looking for a breakthrough in stimulus talks in Washington.
Britain’s main stock index added 1.1% as Barclays reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings and British retail sales beat expectations in September. Shares in Asia hardly moved, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan 0.1% lower. Japan’s Nikkei ticked up 0.2%. The CSI300 index of mainland China shed 1.3%.
“The market is not going to change significantly in the short term,” said François Savary, chief investment officer at Swiss wealth manager Prime Partners. “There is no reason for markets to take big long positions as we have the election in less than 10 days, and combined with Covid-19 uncertainty it’s a time when people will take a step back and wait for election developments before taking a bet on the markets.
Clean energy is seen as a potential winner at the expense of conventional energy under a Biden presidency. The Dow Jones oil and gas index is down nearly 49% this year. Biden reiterated his campaign pledge of net-zero emissions by 2050.The Nasdaq index, which had led the market’s rally, has underperformed lately, losing 1.4% so far this week, on concern that Democrats will take a harder stance on big tech firms.
US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi reported progress in talks with the Trump administration for another round of financial aid, saying legislation could be hammered out “pretty soon”.